YOGA
“If you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into you.”
Enjoy These Musings and Insights on Yoga and Life
Why Would You Want Two Legs Behind Your Head?
To begin… there really isn’t a good “reason” to ever put both legs behind your head! However, if you practice Ashtanga yoga following the sequencing of Sri K Pattabhi Jois, then you will inevitibly reach this tricky posture about a third of the way through the Intermediate Series.
To begin with, I would recommend spending a significant amount time in the posture that comes right before this one: Eka-Pada-Sirsasana…
Ouch! Was that my hamstring?
Hamstring injuries are one of the most common spots injuries that occur and most of the time they will heal without any kind of surgical intervention. But how can you continue your practice if you’ve injured your hamstring? It can feel very painful to continue stretching this area in forward folds while it’s healing. However, gently stretching the area is exactly what is needed to prevent scar tissue from forming a ball or knot while it’s repair the tissue tear.
How You Can Get A Better Backbend in 3 Simple Steps
Are you struggling with you backbends? Can’t figure out where it’s all going wrong?
In this Wellness Wednesday video, I demonstrate the how you can find a better backbend with 3 simple steps. Now, I said the steps were simple, that doesn’t mean they are easy!
What's stopping your Bakasana B?
Bakasana B can be an intimidating prospect when working through the Second Series of the Ashtanga yoga sequence. Many times students say, “but I can’t jump and land!” So, what exactly is stopping you from successfully landing on the backs of your arms in this position?
Tips for Working on Kapotasana
Kapotasana is another one of those very difficult postures in the Second Series of the Ashtanga yoga sequence. Here you will find some tips for working on this asana using the assistance of a wall to gradually open and strengthen the muscles supporting the spine so that you can practice this posture without pain.
Tips for Helping to work on Eka-Pada Sirsasana
Many students when they get to this “one-leg-behind-the-head” posture start to inquire about any extra ways to work on or help speed up the long process of figuring out how to get their leg-behind-their-head and keep it there! In this video tutorial, Harmony offers three different variations you can try that will help you begin to shift your experience of this difficult asana.
Tips To Work Your "Drop-Backs"
Many yoga students are very excited to start learning how to drop-back from a standing position into a back-bend. However, when they come to start trying they discover that it is a lot more challenging that it first appears. Here, in this video and post, Harmony gives some helpful tips to get you started on this journey.
Wellness Wednesday: Some Tips for Boosting Your Immune System
When we talk about ways to boost your immune system or increase immunity, we are really talking about the regular things you can do to reduce stress and toxicity within your physiological systems so that your body can do what it naturally does already more efficiently. When we're stressed, or already overloaded with harmful substances, the immune system's ability to fight off antigens is significantly reduced. That is why we become more susceptible to infections.
Ashtanga Mama: Interview with Harmony Slater, by Bandha Works in Budapest
An interview given by Harmony to Bandha Works in Budapest, Hungary about her experience becoming a mother with an Ashtanga yoga practice, and some advice for new parents or mothers-to-be.
An Idyll: What is Classic? Part VI: The Classic Jumpshot
If you’re interested in how back-bending and basketball connect you will need to read this fantastic blog written by Russell Altice Case… He muses about art, sports, motorcycles, Hinduism, yoga, linguistics, definitions, gurus… and so much more!
This is a link to Part 6: The Classic Jumpshot - Featuring an extended quote from me about the secret to a happy, healthy back-bend.
If you like it, I would recommend starting at Part One, or at the very least go back and read Part 4, 5 which are full of interesting Yoga references and give a lot of the context around What is Classical, including classical “Hatha Yoga”. It’s a fun and super thought provoking blog to read!
A Book Review: Ageless
A Book Review: Ageless
His book begs us to ask how yoga and the eight limbs of the Ashtanga practice relate to the way we eat, think, consume, breathe, sleep, exercise, and how we can be more discerning in the way we expend our energy, focus our attention, all while caring for others and our planet.
The entire text stems around this principle: “Living like a yogi is about becoming connected with vitality and health.” ……
Ganesh Chaturthi
Ganesha - the elephant headed deity - is the God of New Beginnings, Remover of Obstacles, and the God of Intelligence and Wisdom.
If you are unable to worship Lord Ganesha on a daily basis, it is said that you will find the benefits one hundred times more powerful if you take the time to acknowledge his energy on Ganesha Chaturthi…
The Upward Facing Dharma Dog
In the great Indian epic the Mahabharata, the Indian Pariah Dog features prominently, as possibly one of the first domesticated dogs in history…
he Pandava brothers decide it is also time for them to renounce their kingdom, and set out on their final journey to the top of Mount Kailash - the gateway for their ascension into heaven. Their shared wife, Draupadi, decides to go with them, along with Yudhisthira’s faithful dog…
Matsya - A Fish Will Guide Us
The “Fish” in all three of these postures is referring to the first avatar of Lord Vishnu. This myth first appears in the Shatapatha Brahmana (700-300 BCE). This story is one that we might be more familiar with than we realize…
Matsya keeps growing and growing, and Satyavrata continues moving him from one jar into another, always needing larger and larger containers, until he has no choice but to move him into the ocean…
This is possibly where we get the progressions of these postures. Each referring to a different period of Vishnu's transformation from a simple little fish, to the size of a 'half-king-fish' and finally into the form of a 'full-King' fish!
Matsyendra warns Satyavrata about the coming dissolution of the world…
Kapilasana - Mind Your Manners!
The name Kapila appears in many texts prior to the conception of Samkhya. In fact, Kapila is mentioned as one Vishnu’s names.
There is a story in the Brahma Purana where King Sagara commands his 60,000 sons to go searching for his sacrificial horse that he believes was stolen, as he can not complete the vedic ritual without it…
All is coming... All is going...
Somewhere along the way, I realized that “All is coming” meant ALL of it: the good, the bad, the ugly, the miserable, the beautiful, the exquisite, the pain unbearable, the joy insurmountable, the laughter and tears, new friendships and the loss of others, children, lovers, enemies, sickness, hours of being stuck in traffic, the feeling of lightness and oppressive heaviness, unbelievably good fortune as well as terrible hardships... ALL of it.
Guru Purnima 2018
“Today, while thinking of all the many times that I had the good fortune to be in Mysore, India to celebrate Sri. K Pattabhi Jois’s birthday (which coincides with Guru Purnima) I couldn’t help but feel a deep sense of appreciation for all the days of practice and learning that I had with him and Sri R. Sharath Jois. Almost immediately, I felt disheartened that not everyone was able to think back and remember Guruji with the fondness I had. These two mixed emotions brought me back to thinking more about the idea of what it is to have a Guru, and how this connection is formed, and then transformed, and how we can honor each other within this context.”
Shayanasana - Taking a more "relaxed stance"
This posture is called Śhayanāsana. Shayana means "resting" “reclined” or “lying down” and when combined with asana it translates as something like a "relaxed stance."
Now, if you have ever tried this posture, you will know it is anything but relaxing! ...
Bhairava the Frightful One
This asana is called Bhairavasana - meaning the "position of Bhairava." It is Halloween tonight, and as children wander around the streets dressed up in costume, I am reminded of one of the most terrifying forms of Rudra or Shiva in his manifestation as Bhairava.
Kali and Yama - Time and Dissolution
In the hands of the fear provoking goddess, Kali, who personifies the irreproachable sovereignty of Time, the ‘danda’ signifies her inexorable power and destructive impulse. She holds the ability to both give life and destroy it...